Paddington Bear Trivia
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
6correct to beat the crowd
49 free Paddington Bear trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Paddington arrived at a London station with a label round his neck and has been getting politely into trouble ever since. Michael Bond's bear has outgrown the books: there are cartoons from three decades, three live-action films, a West End musical, a bronze at the station that named him, and a cup of tea with the Queen that the whole country watched. These 49 questions go past the marmalade. They cover how the stories began and who drew them, the voices behind the TV series, the casts, villains and behind-the-scenes stories of the films, and the odd places Paddington has turned up, from parade balloons to coins. The quiz suits families, classrooms and anyone who grew up with a duffel coat and a suitcase. Each answer comes with a short explanation, so you learn something even when you guess.
30 of 49 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In Paddington 2, which stray item in Paddington's prison wash turns every inmate's uniform pink?
A red sock
A red sock slips into the load on his laundry duty, and the furious inmates only warm to Paddington once he introduces them to marmalade.
Q 02Which Queen hit did Paddington and Elizabeth II tap their teacups to at her Platinum Jubilee concert?
"We Will Rock You"
"We Will Rock You" was then played live outside the palace by Queen + Adam Lambert, and in the sketch the Queen revealed she keeps a marmalade sandwich in her bag for emergencies.
Q 03Which Top Gear presenter's mother made the first Paddington toy, adding Wellington boots so it stood up?
Jeremy Clarkson
Jeremy Clarkson's parents Shirley and Eddie ran Gabrielle Designs, whose prototype bear was a Christmas present for Jeremy and his sister Joanna before Michael Bond granted them the toy rights.
Q 04Which actor voiced the Browns' grumpy neighbour in the 1989 Paddington cartoon, a character who shares his surname?
Tim Curry
Tim Curry voiced Mr Curry, the mean neighbour who barks "Bear!" at Paddington and is forever trying to get something for nothing out of him.
Q 05In 2018 Paddington 2 became the most-reviewed film to hold a perfect 100% score on which review site?
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes had 164 positive reviews and none negative, one more than Toy Story 2's record; the perfect run ended in 2021, when a single late pan cut it to 99%.
Q 06Like the Queen, Paddington celebrates two birthdays a year; which date pairs with 25 December?
25 June
25 June is the summer one: Paddington was not sure how old he was when the Browns found him, so they started him again at one and gave him two birthdays a year.
Q 07Who plays Phoenix Buchanan, the faded West End star reduced to dog-food adverts, in Paddington 2?
Hugh Grant
Hugh Grant earned a BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actor as the master of disguise, and he sings Sondheim's "Rain on the Roof" over the end credits.
Q 08Which Oscar winner plays Millicent Clyde, the taxidermist who hunts Paddington in the 2014 film?
Nicole Kidman
Nicole Kidman's villain wants Paddington stuffed for her collection, and ends the film sentenced to community service in her own father's petting zoo.
Q 09Which actor voiced Paddington in each of the first three live-action films?
Ben Whishaw
Ben Whishaw took the role late: another actor had already recorded Paddington before withdrawing months before release, so Whishaw joined in post-production.
Q 10Which British retailer's 2017 Christmas advert had Paddington mistake a burglar for Father Christmas?
Marks & Spencer
Marks & Spencer's advert had Paddington help the thief, whom he takes for Santa, return every stolen gift to its rightful owner.
Q 11Which Paddington habit, taught by Aunt Lucy, leaves rude people flushed and embarrassed?
A hard stare
A hard stare is Paddington's only weapon: he is unfailingly polite, calling people Mr, Mrs and Miss, so the stare is what he saves for anyone who forgets their manners.
Q 12At which fictional London address near Notting Hill do the Browns give Paddington a home?
32 Windsor Gardens
32 Windsor Gardens is invented: a real Windsor Gardens exists between Notting Hill and Maida Vale, but it looks nothing like the Browns' street.
Q 13At which London street market is Paddington respected by shopkeepers for driving a shrewd bargain?
Portobello Road
Q 21Paddington station's bronze bear under the clock copies which original illustrator's artwork?
Peggy Fortnum
Peggy Fortnum drew him in pen and ink from the first book in 1958, kitting him out in a duffle coat like the one Bond had been wearing the night he found the toy bear.
Q 22Michael Bond first wrote that Paddington came from "darkest" where, until his agent pointed out it had no bears?
Africa
Africa was the plan until his agent noted that it has no native bears, so Bond moved his stowaway to Peru, home of the spectacled bear.
Q 23Which actor narrated the 1976 BBC stop-motion Paddington and voiced every character himself?
Michael Hordern
Portobello Road was Bond's own patch: he typed the first book in a tiny flat just off it, and decades later the films shot their market chase on the real street.
Q 14Which antique dealer shares elevenses with Paddington every day in Michael Bond's books?
Mr Gruber
Mr Gruber came to London from Hungary, and over cocoa and buns each morning he treats the bear as a fellow newcomer, taking him and the children on outings.
Q 15Aunt Lucy raised him, but which other relative handed down Paddington's battered old hat?
Uncle Pastuzo
Uncle Pastuzo handed down the old bush hat and, back in Peru, his own name too; the famous duffle coat came later, bought by the Browns after they took the bear home.
Q 16Aunt Lucy sends Paddington to London after moving into the Home for Retired Bears in which city?
Lima
Lima is where Aunt Lucy went once she could no longer look after him, so she taught him English and arranged for him to stow away in a ship's lifeboat.
Q 17What are the names of the two Brown children who share a house with Paddington in the books?
Judy and Jonathan
Judy and Jonathan Brown swap ages between adaptations: Judy is the elder in the films and the 1976 series, Jonathan in the 1989 and 1997 cartoons.
Q 18Michael Bond, then a BBC cameraman, wrote the whole first Paddington book in how long?
Ten days
Ten days in the spring of 1957 was all it took: the story began with a lonely toy bear he had bought out of pity for his wife's Christmas stocking.
Q 19Michael Bond's other children's series starred Olga da Polga, named after the family's pet what?
A guinea pig
A guinea pig: the real Olga was a Bond family pet, and unlike Paddington her fictional namesake is a teller of tall tales in the style of Baron Munchausen.
Q 20In which canal-side London district did Michael Bond live, close to the station that named his bear?
Little Venice
Little Venice kept Bond a short walk from Paddington station, where he used to turn out from home to stand the toy bears in its display cases back on their feet.
Michael Hordern, a noted Lear on stage and screen, later said the three most challenging roles of his career had been God, Lear and Paddington Bear.
Q 24The label round Paddington's neck was inspired by Michael Bond's wartime memory of whom?
Child evacuees
Child evacuees travelled with a label round the neck and their belongings in one small case; Bond said that made Paddington, in a sense, a refugee.
Q 25In the 1976 BBC series, how were the Browns and the other characters shown alongside the Paddington puppet?
As flat 2D drawings
As flat 2D drawings: the Browns and everyone else were paper cut-outs, which left the puppet bear the only three-dimensional character and always the centre of attention.
Q 26Which American studio made the 1989 Paddington cartoon that added an American cousin named David?
Hanna-Barbera
Hanna-Barbera co-produced it with Britain's Central Television, and its new character David lands in London on the very day Paddington does.
Q 27Which US kids' network co-made the 2019 cartoon The Adventures of Paddington with StudioCanal?
Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon's series kept the films' voice of Paddington and frames each episode as a letter the young bear writes home to Aunt Lucy; Gary Barlow wrote its theme song.
Q 28On which BBC children's programme was Paddington first adapted for television, in 1966?
Jackanory
Jackanory had Thora Hird read five Paddington stories on consecutive afternoons in March 1966, and every one of those episodes is now missing from the archive.
Q 29Which QI host won a 2008 Audie Award in the US for reading the Paddington audiobook More About Paddington?
Stephen Fry
Stephen Fry's reading of Bond's 1959 sequel took the Audio Publishers Association's Young Listeners' Title, one of several Paddington books he has recorded.
Q 30Who wrote and directed the first two Paddington films before handing the third to a new director?
Paul King
Paul King finished shooting Paddington 2 on 27 June 2017, the very day Michael Bond died, and the film he wrote with Simon Farnaby is dedicated to the author.